Electrical weft-indicator mechanism for looms.



N0. 694,9'6l. I I Patented Mar. 11,1902.

8. M. HAIIIBLIN.

ELECTRICAL WEFT INDICATOR. MECHANISM FOB LDOMS.

(Application filed'Oct. 12,1899.) v (No Model.) 2 Shuts-:Sheet I.

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' Patented Mar. ll, I902. s. m. HAMBLIN. v ELECTRICAL WEFT INDICLAT'UB MEGHANISM FDR LUOMS.

(Application filed Oct. 12. 1599.)

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(No Model.)

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

STEPHEN M. HAMBLIN, OF CENTRAL FALLS, RHODE ISLAND, ASSIGNOR TO HARRY SMITH, OF WQROESTER, MASSACHUSETTS.

ELECTRICAL WEFT-lNDICATOR MECHANISM FOR LOOMS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 694,961, dated March 1 1, 1902;

Application filed October 12,1899. Serial No. 733,358. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern: v 7

Be it known that I, STEPHEN M. HAMBLIN, a citizen of the United States, residing at 696 Broad street, Central Falls, in the county of Providence, State of Rhode Island, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Electrical Weft-Indicator Mechanisms for Looms, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawings.

The invention comprises novel devices by means of which when the supply of weft or filling contained in the shuttle at work on the lay of a loom becomes exhausted to a predetermined extent an electric circuit is closed.

The preferred embodiments of the essential features of the invention are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 shows in front elevation part of the lay of a loom with a shuttle contained in the shuttle-box, portions being broken out in order to render clear details which otherwise would be concealed. Fig. 2 is a view in crosssection on line 2 2, Fig. 1, on an enlarged scale and looking in the direction thatis indicated by the arrows near the ends of such line. Fig. 3 is a front' elevation, on an enlarged scale, of part of the loom-shuttle that is represented in Fig. 1. plan thereof. Fig. 5 is a partial plan of a loom-shuttle, showing the manner of practicing my invention in case of the use of weft or filling in cop form.

Having reference more especially to Figs. 1 and 2, 1 designates one of the swords of the lay of a loom; 2, the lay-beam; 3, the back of a shuttle-box; 31, the metal bottom of the said shuttle-box; i, the mouth portion of the shuttle-box, and 5 a shuttle-binder, only portions of the binder being represented in Fig. 1. 6 is the body of a loom-shuttle, it being shown in position in the shuttle-box in these figures.

Within the shuttle-body 6 I place two contaots or feelers, as 7 7. (See also Figs. 3, a,

Fig. 4 is a sectional such load which they touch decreases in consequence of the unwinding of the yarn. Herein the saidspring-pressure is secured by forming the feelers 7 7 of strips of spring metalhaving one end of each fixed to the shuttlebody,whil'e the other is free and is bent toward the filling-carrier. The positions of the free ends of the feelers are such that when the filling-carrier, with its load of weft or filling, is depressed into position within the cavity of the shuttle body the feelers are pressed upon by the surface of the yarn-load, and thereby put under sufficient stress to bring into play their spring force. A convenient position of the free endsof the feelers is illustrated in-the drawings, in which latter the said free ends are shown located on opposite sides horizontally of the filling-carrier and arranged to make contact with the yarnload at such sides. With this arrangement the feelers are pressed outwardly away from each other as the filling-carrier with its yarnload is forced down between them.

The filling-carrier in Figs. 1, 3, and 4 is in the form of a bobbin 8. The said bobbin is shown applied to a pivoted spindle 9, as usual in loom-shuttles. When bobbins are. not employed and weft or filling in cop form is ap-- plied to the spindle 9, as is in practice the case with the loom-shuttle of Fig. 5, the spindle itself is to be regarded as the filling-carrier for the purpose of the present invention. So long as the feelers rest in contact with yarn forming part of the yarn-load on the filling-carrier the free ends thereof remain electrically insulated from each other by such yarn. They remain thus insulated from each other until the gradual unwinding of the yarn bares the portion of the filling-carrier which is immediately adjacent the feelers and permits the free extremities of the latter to make contact therewith. In order that whenthis contact occurs the said extremities of the ring 100 placed thereon, although this may be dispensed with and the feelers may be permitted to make contact with the spindle directly.

The feelers 7 7 are shown as having the butt-ends thereof set in cuts or kerfs 11 11 (see dotted lines, Fig. 3) in the wood of the shuttle-body at opposite sides thereof. Pins 12 12 are driven through the said ends for the purpose of securing the feelers in place.

In order that the feelers may be placed in electrical communication with electric terminals or contact-pieces outside of the shuttle body, I provide in connection with each feeler a movable contact-piece 13. These are made in the form of rings or washers of suitable metal. They are located in narrow cavities 14 14 in the shuttle-body immediately alongside the feelers and make contact by their sides with the sides of the latter. They are held in place by pins or pivots 15 15, the latter passing through the feelers also and assisting to secure the feelers in place. The central holes 16 through the said rings or washers are somewhat largerin diameter than the pins or pivots 15 15, and in consequence the rings or washers are free not only to turn around the latter, but to move vertically with relation to the shuttle-body. The said movable contact-pieces 13 13 tend normally to drop or gravitate into the position which is represented in Fig. 2, so as to project slightly from the shuttle-body. During the flight of the shuttle the said movable contact-pieces roll along the surface of the shuttle-race, passing lightly over the warp-threads without marking or otherwise injuring the latter. The fixed contact-pieces or terminals with which the movable contact-pieces 13 13, carried by the shuttle, coact are designated 17 1'7. They are located in the shuttle-box at the places where the movable contact-pieces stand while the shuttle is at rest, being set in holes in the bottom 31 of the shuttle-box at opposite sides of the usual slot for the picker and being suitably insulated from the metal portions of the shuttle-box. Preferably the upper surfaces of the said fixed contact-pieces or terminals are lowered a little with reference to the upper surface of the bottom of the shuttle-box, and they are elongated in the direction of the length of the shuttle-box in order to compensate for differences in the position of the shuttle after being stopped at the ends of successive flights. As the shuttle comes to rest in the shuttle-box at the end of its flight the gravitating contact-pieces 13 13 drop into contact with the upper faces of the fixed contact-pieces or terminals.

18 19 are Wires connecting with the fixed contact-pieces or terminals 17 17 and also with the battery or other source of electrical power,

(indicated at 20.) An electromagnet (indi-.

cated at 21) is also included in the circuit, it constituting a means of bringing into action stopping or other devices which are intended to be brought into play whenever the supply of weft or filling provided on the filling-carrier in the working shuttle on the lay becomes exhausted or depleted to the predetermined extent. Every time that the shuttle comes to rest in the shuttle-box the gravitating movable contact-pieces 13 13 make contact with the upper surface of the fixed contact-pieces or terminals 17 17 on the lay. So long, however, as electrical communication between the spring-feelers 7 7 is broken on account of the presence of yarn on the filling-carrier under the extremities of such pressers the electric circuit is kept open and the electromagnet 21 remains inert. When the exhaustion or depletion of the yarn-load bares the fillingcarrier and permits the spring-pressers to make contact therewith, the circuit is closed or completed and the electromagnet is energized, whereby the stopping or other devices which are operated therefrom are brought into action.

I claim as my invention 1. In combination, ashuttle-body,electrical contacts or feelers within the same, means of electrically bridging the interval between such contacts or feelers on exhaustion or depletion of the yarn-load in the shuttle to a predetermined extent, and gravitating movable contact-pieces in electrical communication with the said electrical contacts or feelers.

2. In combination, ashuttle-body,electrical contacts or feelers within the same, means of electrically bridging the interval between such contacts or feelers on exhaustion or depletion of the yarn-load in the shuttle to a predetermined extent, gravitating movable contact-pieces in electrical communication with the said electrical contacts or feelers, the lay, contact-pieces or terminals applied thereto, coacting with the saidmovable contact-pieces, and an electric circuit including such contact-pieces on the lay.

3. In combination, a shuttle-body, a fillingcarrier composed wholly or in part of con ducting material, a pair of electrical springfeelers carried by the said shuttle body, adapted to bear against different portions of the yarn-load on said filling-carrier, and placed in electrical communication with each other on making contact with portions of said filling-carrier bared by the unwinding of the yarn, and gravitating movable contact-pieces in electrical communication with the said electrical feelers.

. at. In combination, a shuttle-body, a fillingcarrier composed wholly or in part of conducting material, a pair of electrical springfeelers carried by the said shuttle-body, adapted to bear against different portions of the yarn-load on said filling-carrier, and placed in electrical communication with each other on making contact with portions of said filling-carrier bared by the unwinding of the trical feelers, the lay,-contact-pieces or terminals applied thereto coactin g with the said movable contact-pieces, and an electric circuit including such contact-pieces on the lay.

5. In combination ,a-shuttle-body, electrical contacts or feelers within the same, means of electrically bridging the interval between such contacts or feelers on exhaustion or depletion of the yarn-load in the shuttle to a predetermined extent, and gravitating rotating rings or'washers in electrical communi cation with the said electrical contacts or feelers and constituting movable contactpieces. J

6. In combination,a shuttle-body, electrical contactsor feelers within the same, means of electrically bridging the intervals between such contacts or feelers on exhaustion or depletion of the yarn-load in the shuttle to a predetermined extent, gravitating rotating rings or washers in electrical communication with the said electrical contacts or feelers and constituting movable contact-pieces, the lay, contact-pieces or terminals applied thereto, coactin g with the said movable contact-pieces,

and an electric circuit including such con-' tact-pieces on the lay.

7. In combination a shuttle-body, electricalbridging the interval between such contacts or feelers on exhaustion or depletion of the yarn-load in the shuttle to a predetermined extent, and movable contact-pieces carried by the shuttle-body, in electrical'communication with the said electrical contacts or feelers, and tending with yielding force to project normally into position to engage with the said contact-pieces or terminals on the lay.

9. In combination, ashuttle-body, a fillingoarrier composed wholly or in part of conducting material, a pair of s pring-feelers carried by the shuttle-body, adapted to bear against different portions of the yarn-load on said filling-carrier, and placed in" electrical commuuicationwith each other on coming in contact with portions of said filling-carrier bared by the unwinding of the yarn, and the gravitating rings or washers in electrical communication with the said spring-feelers and constituting movable contact-pieces.

10. In combination, a shuttle-body, a filling-carrier, composedwholly or in part of conducting material, a pair of spring-feelers carried by the shuttle body, adapted to bear against difierent portions of the yarn -load on said filling-carrier and placed in electrical communication with each other oncoming in contact with portions of said filling-carrier bared'by the unwinding of the yarn, the

gravitatin g rings or washers in electrical com munication with the said spring-feelers and constituting movable contact-pieces, the lay, contact-pieces or terminals applied thereto and an electric circuit including" the latter contact-pieces or terminals;

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature in presence of two Witnesses.

STEPHEN HAMBLIN;

Witnesses} CHAS. F. RANDALL, WILLIAM A. COPELAND. 

